Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: a Pennsylvania for-profit corporation dissolves by filing Articles of Dissolution under 15 Pa.C.S. §§ 1971-1979 for $70, but Pennsylvania will not accept it without a tax clearance certificate in hand first.
The filing, and what Pennsylvania calls it
A Pennsylvania corporation that has transacted business files Articles of Dissolution (Form DSCB:15-1977); one that never transacted business beyond holding subscription money uses the shorter Form DSCB:15-1971 and is statutorily exempt from the tax-clearance step below.
The tax clearance question
Pennsylvania will not accept the Articles of Dissolution without a tax clearance in hand. For a standard § 1977 dissolution, clearance certificates from both the Department of Revenue and the Department of Labor & Industry, evidencing all taxes paid, must be filed with the Articles of Dissolution. Corporations filing under § 1971 (never transacted business) are exempt from this step. (15 Pa.C.S. § 139(a), carved out for § 1971 filings by § 139(c)(2))
Creditors and the claims window
Pennsylvania makes available, but does not require, a formal notice-to-known-and-unknown-creditors procedure, with a 60-day claims-bar window. Not compelled, but functionally needed for claim-bar protection: written notice to known claimants plus publication for 2 consecutive weeks, with a deadline of not less than 60 days after the notice is given, after which unreceived claims are barred. (15 Pa.C.S. § 1992)
What the filing costs
The Articles of Dissolution carries a $70 filing fee. Listed under the Department of State’s ‘each ancillary transaction’ fee category; expedited service tiers exist but were not independently re-verified this session.
What this page does not answer
Dissolving the entity at the state level and closing it out with the IRS are two separate processes. A final federal return, IRS Form 966 in some circumstances, and canceling the EIN are governed by federal law, not by Pennsylvania’s corporation statute, and this cluster does not source them. We have the state-filing answer at primary and the federal-closeout answer not at all.
This page sells nothing and links to no filing service. Dissolving a corporation is a filing-desk task with a statutory answer, and the answer is either in the state’s code and the Secretary of State’s own instructions or it is not.
This page covers a for-profit business corporation. If you are closing an LLC in Pennsylvania instead, the filing, fee and statute are different: see dissolving an LLC in Pennsylvania.
Sources
Every citation on this page is statutory or the Secretary of State’s own official filing instructions. No formation service, no registered-agent marketing page and no aggregator is cited anywhere in this cluster; those are the only publishers of the competing versions.
- 15 Pa.C.S. §§ 1971, 1972, 1977, 1992, 139: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=15
- Pennsylvania Dept. of State fee schedule: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dos.html
- 61 Pa. Code § 151.11 (Out of Existence Affidavit): https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/061/chapter151/s151.11.html